Martinsburg daily gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1887-1887, 1887-05-24
FREAKS OF THE INSANE.
SOME or THE LuDIcRouS EXPRESS
sloNs or THE DEMENTED.

Unconscious Comicality Of Crazy lockers.
Nothing Too Absurd to BE Believed by
: Lunakic-Ingsnuity Of 1Ionomaniacs.
Extravagant Fancy.
Some lunatics even deliberately assume
the role Of iokers. They mike horrible
uuns. ask conundrums and get of poor
witticisms. But IL II their unconscious
counicality that makes them most laugh
able: and its effect Is doubled by the
gravity Of mien and tone with which they
Slfter their whimsical conceits, and which
every lecturer az the humorous species
must envy them. One day, when the
present writer was attending lecture on
mental diseases in an asylum, the pro-
lessor brought In patient suffering rom
Illusions O., his imagination distorted
everything he saw into something diner
cnk ssWhere are yOug' the professor
asked the patient. In : menageries"
vs. the answer. "And what are these
beings9'' the professor asked, pointing 70
tn students. The answer was consistent:
asTions and tigers and bears" When the
students laughed aloud at this unexpected
geological diagnosis, the patient insisted
that the animals were now roaring. n
Frequently patients consider themselves
partially or entirely transformed intosani-
mails or superior beings. One woman
mentioned BY Kraft Ebing insisted that
her fest had been changed into hoofs and
her head into an ox's head. A young man
became convinced in the course Of his dis
ease that he was the devil, 50 he refused
to take food in order to starve the fiend.
An Austrian patient insisted that he hail
lost his eyes, and wanted to go to London
to get new pair. Being retained against
hts will he refused to eat anything on the
ground that Bismarck had poisoned his
food and that million gods had warned
him against it.
NOTHING rs TOO ABSURD.
It often happens, as in dreams, that in
animate objects appear to the patient to
be alive Al tower opposite an aged luna-
tics window was taken by him for the
ssworld SOUL One day he saw the tower
move away, and voice came from it
which cursed him for having destroyed
the world! Nothing is too absurd to be
believed by the demented. One patient
having maltreated another, was taken to
task and questioned as to his motive. He
finally confessed that the other man
wanted to come into my ward to bud a
chimney six miles high, and pushed MIN
down stairs. y I'm one case that was I'M
der my charge, says Dr.. Hammond, 1.-THE
patient, stationer, doing business in this
city, had the delnsion that unknown enc
mics -FreemasOns- acting on him
BY electricity, which they sent into his
brain, through the top Of his head, BY
powerful batteries which they had IN their
lodge rooms. In another woman
conceived that al the iron ratings and
- <vnnl~~ hnA hcorl shnrAroA Nth
electricity IN order to fnjure her.
Great ingenuity ID often shown by mono
maniacs I'm trying to justify their ludicrolls
baliefs. DR.. Hammond knew man who
believed that his right hand was made Of
| olass. and who therefore carried it IN q
stout case. to prevent its being broken.
| When the doctor tried to convince him
that his hand was flesh and blood, and not
glass. he retorted: IT once thought just as
| you do. Ny brain was then incapable OF
| appreciating minute differences as well as
| it can now; and, though confess that my
senses still convey to me the idea that my
hand Is Like other peoples, yet know
! that the conception is erroneous, and cor
| rect Il at once BY my reason. My hand
| looks like flesh and blood, but it's glass
| for all that Nothing is more calculated
| to deceive than the senses
KxUBERANcE OF FANCY.
Among Professor Kraft Ebing's pa
tients was one who felt badly used because
they would not give him needle and
\ thread rs sew on his head. which be main
tanned had been severed from his body
| with a fine cord by negro The same
man considered himself q great magician,
and told Of his adventures in quest Of the